NGO Transparency Law Implementation - Update

According to the “Law on Disclosure Requirements For [Groups] Supported by a Foreign Governmental Body” (Transparency law – February 2011), a “recipient of support that received a donation from a Foreign Governmental Body will submit to the Registrar, within a week of the end of the quarter in which the donation was received, a report in an amutot18@justice.gov.il" target="_blank">online form which the Minister of Justice will formulate.”

As of June 26, 2012, a number of politicized NGOs active in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict have submitted quarterly reports for the period Jan-March 2012 that disclose the support they have received from foreign governmental bodies.

• Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), B’Tselem, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Keshev, Bimkom, Ir Amim, Hamoked, and Gisha – among other NGOs – have submitted quarterly reports.
• Other NGOs that regularly receive funding from foreign governments did not submit reports for the first quarter of 2012. It is unknown whether these groups did not receive foreign government funding during the reporting period, whether they have failed to act in accordance with the law, or whether they did not report for other reasons.

Analysis of the filings from the first quarter of 2012 shows:

• The Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits (Rasham Amutot) lists 40 NGO projects: 29 relate to the Arab-Israeli conflict, 2 to migrant workers, 1 to Israel-Jordan relations.
• The added transparency reveals major funding by Norway, 3,045,071 NIS in the first quarter of 2012 (36% of the reported foreign governmental donations).
• B’Tselem reported a donation by Catholic Relief Service (CRS), a framework funded primarily from governments. In 2011, CRS received $589 million (out of $823 million in support and revenue) from “the U.S. or foreign governments and from international organizations such as the United Nations, The Global Fund and The World Bank.”

Selection of data from the Registrar of Non-profits website (1st quarter 2012):